Office XP update woe

[Hoib]

Trying to perform an update of Office XP at the MS site.
Click on Check for Updates and the scan reliably goes 57%
through and comes up with this error: Error! Unable to
check for updates on this computer. The floppy drive
here also fires off mid-way. Anyway, 4 bulleted
suggestions appear. Bullet1: I am an administrator on
this PC. Bullet2: I don't think network problems is the
issue - I've been at this some 2 days now. Bullet4: I
don't see it prompting for the orig install disk set. In
my thinking, Bullet3 is my chief suspect. Searched the
C:\ drive (opened up view all hidden files/folders) I
cannot find the \windows\installer folder - somehow it
got knocked out (I -never- touch anything in the \Windows
folder or any subfolder).

So, anyone care to guess if I'm on the right track?
Then, I'm looking to know how to reconstruct the
\Windows\installer folder? And then, how do I
reconstruct the suggested .MSP file?

Thank you all for any help.

Hoib

 

[Guest]

Oopps! Sorry there's more...

Thankfully, I DID manage to find the folder
\windows\installer!! It is there - I just hadn't turned
off "Hide protected sys files" So that's the good news.
Now, I can see a bazillion .msi files there. How do I go
about reconstructing the faulty or missing Office Update
one and which one, if that indeed is even the process I
should be undertaking?

(Note: The error paned stipulated that a .MSP (not MSI)
file is missing. I take that to be a typo...)
Hoib.

 

[whftherb]

Found some hints way down in the NG...

There are some known issues with the Office Update site.
You could try going directly to each KB article, download
the updates manually and install them directly, that has
been a successful workaround for some folks. Some people
have also found the executables which were downloaded
from Office Update in their temp folders and run them
from there. Is as if they downloaded okay but never
actually ran.

Here are some other things that have been suggested:

1. Deleting IE Cache.

In cases where the temporary Internet explorer cache
folder is running out of allotted space, you may be not
be able to download the Office Update control. You can
free up space by deleting the Temporary Internet Files
cache using the "Delete Files" button in the "General"
tab under "Tools | Internet options" menu.

2. Check IE's security settings.

Ensure that your IE browser allows / prompts registering
of signed Active X controls. Follow the steps below to
add http://office.microsoft.com to the list of Trusted
Sites so that the Office Update ActiveX control can load
successfully.

a. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options and
then click the Security tab.
b. In the list of Web content zones, click the
Trusted sites icon.
c. Click Sites.
d. Clear the Require Server verification (https) for
all sites in this zone check box .
e. In the Add this Website to the zone box, enter
the Internet address http://office.microsoft.com.
f. Click Add.
g. Click OK, and then click OK again.

3. Deleting Office Update detection folder.

Also try deleting the C:\Program Files\OfficeUpdate11
folder which contains the detection catalog and
downloaded patch files used by the site.

4. Deleting ActiveX control.

The Office Update ActiveX control can get into a bad
state in certain conditions and should be reinstalled.
First close IE. Then delete the file c:\Windows\opuc.dll
for Windows 9X and Windows XP and c:\Winnt\opuc.dll for
Windows 2000.

Try going back to
http://office.microsoft.com/OfficeUpdate/ to perform
detection again. If it still fails, follow the steps
below.


5. Temporarily turn off Personal Firewall, Download
Manager, Pop-up blockers and Web Acceleration products

If there are Personal Firewall, Download Manager, Pop-up
blockers, or Web Accelerator products installed,
temporarily turn off these products and try detection
again. Popular products include:

· Get Right (Download Manager)
· Download Accelerator
· Zone Labs (Personal Firewall)
· Norton Personal Firewall
· McAfee Personal firewall

And finally, if that doesn't work, here's something else
to try:

1) Use a utility to clean out the Windows Installer data,
290301 - Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp
Utility: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
scid=kb;en-us;290301&Product=offx

2) Reinstall Office

3) Apply your updates


If one of these solutions works for you, please post back.
Thanks--

 

[Dave]

Ah, I am not alone... I have the same problem. Have you
solved this yet?

I think I lost this directory as well when I copied the
drive contents to a new drive and blew away the olds
drive. I guess this information did not copy over to the
new drive.

Anyway, I am still stuck. Can't uninstall, can't upgrade,
nothing.

Let me know if you fix this problem and how you did it.

Dave